home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The 640 MEG Shareware Studio 2
/
The 640 Meg Shareware Studio CD-ROM Volume II (Data Express)(1993).ISO
/
golf
/
gms.zip
/
GMS.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1988-05-19
|
15KB
|
353 lines
GMS - Mean 18 (tm) Golf Management System - Release 1.0
COPYRIGHT 1988 Dan Moore
GMS and its companion programs are Shareware. They may be
copied and distributed freely and if you find the programs
useful, consider sending the author a contribution. Please
refer to the LICENSE.DOC file, distributed in this ARChive.
WHAT IS GMS?
GMS consists of a single executable file (GMS.EXE), which
should be copied to the same directory as Accolade's MEAN
18 game program (GOLF.EXE). The program also assumes that
the course files, saved games files, and Hall Of Fame files
reside in the same directory as the MEAN 18 Game. GMS is
compatible with the M18Vxx program which creates .M10 files
in order to mamage multiple courses beyond the game's
original design criteria. No specific installation or
preparation steps are required for GMS, as long as course
files have a .M10 or .M18 prefixes.
GMS displays MEAN 18 course, saved games, and Hall of Fame
files in scrollable windows. Course and saved game files
may be selected for play/replay, and Hall Of Fame file
contents may be displayed directly on the screen. The
maximum number of course files supported by GMS is only
limited by available memory and the Microsoft QuickBasic
64K string space maximum. A rough estimate is that on a
640K machine, GMS will support a total of 2100 directory
entries (course+saved games+Hall Of Fame files). Future
versions of GMS will eliminate this limitation by using
either EMS memory if available or store string data into
numeric arrays (this would approximately triple the limit
to about 6,400 files).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++OPERATIONS GUIDE
========================================================== STARTING THE PROGRAM
Which MEAN18
There are two EGA versions of MEAN 18. The pre-11/87
version saves games in files with a .SAV suffix. The
post 11/87 version saves games in files with a .SVG suffix.
.SAV files may be renamed to .SVG and may be used with the
new games without harmful effects. The main difference in the
two game version is the addition of statistics functions
(ie, longest drive, closest to pin, etc...). The newer
.SVG files contain game statistics; the older .SAV files do
not. GMS defaults to the newer .SVG saved game files. If
you are using the older version of MEAN18, you should add
the word "OLD" on the command line after the word "GMS" to
force GMS to look for .SAV files instead. If your game has
a "Statistics" option between holes, you have the new game
and need not worry.
To start GMS, type GMS at the DOS prompt (optionally
followed by a space and OLD if you are using the older
game). GMS assumes that all GMS and MEAN 18-related files
are in the current directory. This includes GOLF.EXE, all
.M18 course files, .SAV saved gane files, and .HOF Hall Of
Fame files. If the GMSUTIL program is also used,
GMSUTIL.EXE must be in the same directory (GMSUTIL has its
own file requirements, documented in GMSUTIL.DOC). Upon
startup, the program will display a generic welcome window
and the names and dates of the last 10 courses played (the
window will grow in size until 10 games have been played
under GMS control, and the 10 most recent courses will be
displayed from then on). While that opening window is
displayed, GMS is reading and file names. The program will
then display its standard operation screen, consisting of
the three course selection windows, a help window at the
bottom of the screen. The top line of the screen shows a
generic bar menu.
============================================F1 KEY: SELECTING COURSES FOR PLAY
Pressing the F1 key will activate the course selection
window. The Menu Bar will be displayed in bright red (to
match the color of the course window) with the menu text
above the course window itself. The names inside the
course selection window are the ACTUAL course names stored
inside the course files themselves, rather than the names
of the course files (which may have little relationship
with the real course names). To select a course for play,
scroll through the window with the Up/Dn/PgUp/PgDn keys.
Note that the "page number" is displayed on the top right
of the window and changes as you scroll through the list of
course names. The selected course name will appear in
bright white letters on a bright red background. To play a
desired course, cursor to its name and press <Enter>.
Control will be passed to the MEAN 18 game program. When
you are asked to insert your course disk, press <Enter> and
the game will display the name of the selected course in
the provided window. You're in business.
After you end the game, GMS will regain control and will
display a "Course Comment" window. You may type a
64-character comment on the course you just played, and
press <Enter> to save it in the course information file.
Pressing <Esc> will bypass the course comment process. If
a comment for this course already exist, it will be
displayed and can be edited and saved. While typing the
comment, the following editing keys are available:
INS toggle insert/overstrike mode (cursor change)
DEL delete character at cursor
<left> move cursor left one space
<right> move cursor right one space
Ctrl-<left> move cursor left one word
Ctrl-<right> move cursor right one word
<Backspace> destructive backspace
<Home> move to start of field
<End> move to end of field
Ctrl-<End> delete to end of field
After exitting the comment window, GMS will immediately
re-read the directory to reflect Saved Game or Hall Of
Fame files created or updated as a result of the last game.
Note that the menu bar has been disabled. This was done to
prevent overzealous players from hitting <Enter> a little
too fast and starting a game they didn't want.
NOTE: If you ended the game normally, but did not create a
new Hall Of Fame entry, or quit the game without saving it,
the file directories will not be updated and you will be
returned to GMS immediately. This will save a few seconds
on slower systems of systems with large number of saved
games or Hall Of Fame files.
=========================================F2 KEY: SELECTING SAVED GAMES FOR PLAY
Pressing the F2 Key will activate the Saved Game window.
There are no operational differences between the Course and
Saved Game selection process. The saved game window is
there to let you know that a game has been saved for a
given course. In this respect, GMS is a bit smarter than
MEAN 18 itself. The game allows you to ask for a saved
game, even though none may exist.
NOTE: You may notice file names followed by asterisks in
the Saved Game window (ie, AUGUSTA**********). This
indicates that although a saved game was found, the Course
File itself was not. These courses may not be selected for
play. This may be a frequent condition if you are using
the GMSUTIL program, which allows you to store course files
in ARChived (compressed) format. If you attempt to select
one of these courses, GMS will beep and nothing will occur.
If the course file was ARCed, you may transfer control to
GMSUTIL by pressing the F5 key. Within GMSUTIL you may
un-ARC the desired course file and return to GMS by
pressing the F9 key.
==========================================F3 KEY: DISPLAYING HALL-OF-FAME FILES
Pressing the F3 Key will activate the Hall Of Fame window.
The Hall Of Fame window contains the names of the courses
for which Hall Of Fame files have been created (A Hall of
Fame entry will be created if your score was under 100 and
you earned one of the top 10 scores for that course).
Pressing <Enter> will display the Hall Of Fame file in a
new window in the center of the screen. To clear this
window, press one of the GMS function keys (F1-F5)
NOTE: You may notice file names followed by asterisks in
the Hall Of Fame window (AUGUSTA***********). This
indicates that although a Hall Of Fame file was found, the
Course File itself was not. This is not a problem, and
these Hall Of Fame files can still be displayed if
selected. This may be a frequent condition if you are using
the GMSUTIL program, which allows you to store course files
in ARChived (compressed) format.
===============================================F4 DISPLAYING COURSE INFORMATION
Pressing the F4 key will display a course information
prompt window asking for the name of a course or course
file, or course information data to be searched. For each
course which has been played under GMS, the Course Information
file contains the course name, the course file name, the last
date the course was selected for play, and the comments you
may have entered after playing the game. You may enter a
complete or partial course name or file name or information
search string and GMS will search the course information
file for a match. If no match is found for the specified
search string, a message to that effect will be displayed.
If a match is found, you may press <Enter> to search the
file for the next match (the same search argument may be
found in a number of courses). Pressing <esc> cancels the
request.
If the course information file is not found, GMS will beep
when the F4 key is pressed. The course information file
(COURSES.DAT) is created after the first game is played and
is updated after each subsequent game.
===========================================F5 KEY: INVOKING THE GMSUTIL PROGRAM
Pressing the F5 key will immediately transfer control to
the GMSUTIL program. For more information on GMSUTIL,
refer to the GMSUTIL.DOC file. If you are running MEAN 18
on a hard disk, you really owe it to yourself and your
pocketbook to use GMSUTIL.
=============================================================F6 KEY: ENDING GMS
Pressing the F5 key will immediately and irreversibly
terminate GMS and return control to DOS.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++END OF OPERATIONS GUIDE
GMS ERRORS
If GMS detects an unrecoverable file error, the program
will terminate summarily and display an appropriate message
containing two error codes: the GMS error code which tells
at which point in the program the error was encountered,
and the DOS/BIOS error code which was returned by the
system. Following is a description of all GMS error codes,
the conditions which cause them, and possible solutions.
Error code 1 UNABLE TO OPEN HOF FILE
You have problems. The file was found in the disk
directory, but cannot be opened for input to read HOF
statistics. The DOS error code should tell you what is wrong.
Possible: bad disk, bad directory, file was erased somehow.
Error Code 2 UNABLE TO READ HOF FILE
You have problems. See DOS error code.
Error Code 3,5,7 UNABLE TO OPEN LAST10.DAT FILE
Similar to error 1, but with last 10 game file
Error Code 4,6 UNABLE TO READ LAST10.DAT FILE
Similar to error 2.
Error Code 8 UNABLE TO CREATE LAST10.DAT FILE
You may be completely out of disk space, bad disk,
or write-protected disk.
Error Code 9 UNABLE TO WRITE LAST10.DAT file
Similar to error 8
Error Code 11 UNABLE TO OPEN COURSE FILE
Similar to error 1
Error Code 12 UNABLE TO RENAME .M18 FILE
Most likely cause: You have TWO course files, one
with a .M10 and one with a .M18 extension, but the
same name. Erase the .M18 file.
THE GMSUTIL PROGRAM
If you use a hard disk, I strongly recommend that you use
GMSUTIL, GMS' companion program, and which is distributed
with GMS. GMSUTIL allows you to keep course files in
compressed format and can save you tons of expensive hard
disk space.
REQUIREMENTS
GMS should run in a PC or AT-compatible computer with
PC/MS-DOS release 2.1 or higher. Exact memory requirements
have not been determined, but it runs fine in a 640k AT
with PCDOS 3.3 and about 40k worth of Terminate-Stay
Resident (TSR) programs, environment space, buffers, FCBs,
and device drivers. Of course, GMS requires a color
display. GMS transfers control to the MEAN 18 game when a
course is selected and itself remains in the background,
occupying memory.
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
GMS was developed and tested on a PC-AT clone with 640k of
memory running PC-DOS 3.3 and equipped with a clone EGA
card and display. The program consists of approximately
900 lines of QuickBasic 3.0 code. The program makes
extensive use of Hamerly Computer Services ProBas (a
library of routines for QuickBasic) for directory and file
accesses as well as screen displays, windowing, and input
routines.
The excellent and very fast QuickSort routine used to sort
the course name arrays was originally released 3/82 by W.
Pickett, and modified 7/87 for Turbo Basic by A. S. Kuiper.
I modified it 9/87 for use under QuickBasic 3.0.
WHERE TO REACH ME
I may be reached on the following EXCELLENT Bulletin Board
Systems (in alphabetical order):
Executive Network, Mt. Vernon, NY - Andy Keeves, Sysop
Forbin Project, Cedar Falls, IA - John Friel III, Sysop
LANS, Gary, IN. - Phillip Stults, Sysop
Lestershire Country Club, Turnersville, NJ - Jim Collinge, Sysop
Professionals' Choice, Indianapolis, IN - Bob Predaina, Sysop
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following people who provided me
a lot of constructive feedback on GMS and GMSUTIL:
Mark McHolland, a golf addict, co-worker, and all-around
nice guy. Not long after he installed his new, shiny AT
computer with the fast 40 meg hard disk, it was 30% full
with MEAN 18 course files. It was with Mark in mind that I
wrote GMSUTIL. By far, Mark provided me with the best
feedback and constructive criticism on all these programs.
Armed with GMSUTIL, ARCH.EXE, and a Microsoft mouse, Mark
has also been a very prolific MEAN 18 course Architect.
Dave Lacey, a friend of Mark and also co-worker, whom I
sent into tailspins when I made a small, insignificant
change to GMS which prevented it from working on CGA
systems. With his overfilled 20meg HD, Dave needed GMSUTIL
a lot worse than Mark or I.
Phil Stults, Sysop of the LANS BBS in Gary, IN., friend,
attorney, golfer, gentleman and scholar. Phil is the only
man in the civilized world with a true blue IBM 64K EGA
card. Please send in these contributions so I can buy Phil
a real EGA with 256K for his next birthday, which I will
deliver in the Lamborghini, of course.
Jim Collinge, Sysop of the Lestershire Country Club BBS in
Turnersville, NJ, another golfer, gentleman and scholar.
Jim got hooked on MEAN 18 very quickly and he may well be
the first sysop to have produced a course (LCCMEAN) with
the same name as his bulletin board (a darn good course).
As it should be, LANS and LCC were be the first two BBSs
with the production release of GMS.
Dan Moore
1514 South Drive
Columbus, IN 47203
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++END OF GMS.DOCGMSUTIL.DOC